The Legend Of Zelda Will Be Featured In A Big Way At E3

Nintendo made it known that at this year's E3 there won't be any news about the Nintendo NX. Instead, the company will be focusing solely on The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U. They will host an entire day's worth of live-streaming for those in attendance at E3 and those watching at home.

According to Tech Times, instead of having a traditional press conference or a Nintendo Direct that features a wide variety of new technology and games planned for release throughout the year for Nintendo's platforms, the company will only and entirely focus on The Legend of Zelda.

There will be a kickoff show hosted by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime that starts at 9am PST on Tuesday, June 14th. Gamers will be able to tune in live through a variety of channels supporting the live-stream, which will be made available soon enough over on the E3.Nintendo web page. This will be followed up with Nintendo's Treehouse taking gamers through the gameplay and mechanics of The Legend of Zelda, introducing gamers to the new content, gameplay and direction that Eiji Aonuma and the rest of the crew at Nintendo have taken the game.

Unfortunately the Tech Times article does not say what kind of content we'll see, but they do mention that this will be the first time we'll get an in-depth look at the game and some commentary from the developers themselves about the title.

At the moment the E3 page for Nintendo is just a placeholder image for The Legend of Zelda. Previously the company mentioned that they would not be showcasing any other games at this year's E3 and that they would not be officially unveiling the Nintendo NX. They did announce that the new console would be arriving next year in March, which is odd given that it means people will simply have to trust that the console/handheld/whatever it is will be worth the price of admission right out of the gate.

The weird part about it is that Nintendo is foregoing a prime opportunity to build up some much needed clarification behind the hype for the NX, opting instead to focus solely on a game that isn't due for release until 2017. That's right, The Legend of Zelda has been delayed out of 2016 in order to have a cross-gen release on the Wii U and Nintendo NX.

Now this doesn't discount that we may see more of the mysterious device at this year's Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, Japan. Nintendo might feel more comfortable unveiling the device in their home territory where they've traditionally been able to beat both Sony and Microsoft.

Focusing more-so on just one game at this year's E3 is an extremely risky move, and means that Nintendo must have a lot of faith in Aonuma and crew to deliver a true blockbuster AAA experience when the game launches next year. I would have thought that they would have taken the opportunity at E3 to further play up the 20th anniversary of Pokemon by showcasing Pokemon Sun & Moon or more of Pokemon GO, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

If I were a betting man I would say Nintendo is in a bit of a panic mode at the moment, but I guess we'll have to wait for E3 to see what they have to offer and how much they'll have to show for The Legend of Zelda to know exactly where they stand with the title and what gamers can look forward to when it launches next year.